Disease X
Let’s not forget that, apart from his theft of money from a children’s cancer charity, his being adjudicated a rapist, his 34 felony convictions, his theft of dozens of top secret documents, his racism, his misogyny, his two impeachments, his dozens of obstructions of justice, his (at least) 30,000 verifiable lies, his personally ruining numerous family businesses, his nonpayment of taxes, his half a dozen bankruptcies, his money laundering, his Russian collusion, his insults of America’s allies, his praises of America’s enemies, his malignant narcissism — despite all that and more — there are AT LEAST 400,000 Americans who should be alive today but aren’t thanks to Donald Trump. And before MAGA shrugs its collective shoulders with characteristically heartless indifference, most of those Americans were Republicans.
In the pileup of Trump-atrocities it’s easy to forget that a 2021 post-pandemic study by the prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet revealed that Donald Trump’s “inept and insufficient” handling of the Covid-19 pandemic was the direct cause of the deaths of at least 400,000 Americans. In other words, imagine if every man, woman and child in Tampa, Florida, was suddenly dead, all thanks to Donald Trump’s stupidity. Trump’s bungling, foot-dragging, responsibility-shifting and conspiracy theory-promoting was the cause.
But at least he’s not old, not like Biden, right? Well, actually he is old. He’s only 3 years younger than Joe Biden. And if he survives to the end of his term, he will be the oldest man who ever occupied the White House. And he will be reentering the White House with seven times more unnecessary American blood on his hands than all the presidents of the Vietnam war era.
If I didn’t know better, I would think that many Americans and most of the failing legacy news media hold Donald Trump to a different set of standards than they do everyone else. Any one of Trump’s flaws, ascribed to another candidate, would have been instantly fatal. But not Trump. He is a veritable Rasputin. He is the true Teflon Don. The appalling double standard is all the more baffling because Trump is a disgusting, stupid, evil smelling troll. He is the antithesis of charisma.
Yes, he got away with it. I hesitate to add the words, “So far.” Those words no longer ring with the ominous tone they once did. He may, in fact, have gotten away with it for all time. And in less than a fortnight he’ll be back in the Oval Office, the place where once again the buck is going to stop everywhere else. It’s beyond belief.
Let’s face it, Trump is going to spend his inept “presidency” screwing up. He’s going to shift the blame for it onto Democrats, America’s allies, the legacy media, immigrants, Joe Biden — anybody but Trump. Trump isn’t just a disgusting human being, he’s also a perennial coward. He owns all successes and denies all blame. What in the name of hell does anyone see in this goddamn mess?
Then, as if all that isn’t enough, there is the next coming pandemic. It’s been given the suspiciously Muskian name of “Disease X.” Whatever it turns out to be, it will be the next global pandemic, which some experts predict is pretty much going to be a fait accompli. Others say there’s a one in four chance of another outbreak on the scale of Covid-19. Either way, if it comes it might do so as a strain of influenza or a new coronavirus, or something completely new that we’ve never seen before. The last thing we need under such circumstances is to have Trump in charge. Trump is a man incapable of learning from his mistakes because he doesn’t believe he makes them.
If we face another pandemic in the next four years we will do so under a president who promotes mixed messages about masks, social distancing and vaccines. On the one hand he will use them to protect himself, but he’ll belittle people who do likewise. Trump will cynically use a second pandemic to drive a further wedge between Republicans and Democrats. He will probably kill another 400,000 Americans. Or more. Who knows? We’ll find out.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.